View from Gaviota Peak, southeast into Santa Barbara Channel; my house should be visible to the upper left, but it only takes up about a thousandth of a pixel.
Long-term Wikipedian, who has been with the project since early 2004 – more than five years.
I'm mainly a content contributor, although I do other things, including maintenance, since I'm an administrator. Here's a list of articles I've written; as of April 2009 it includes over 550. I've written a few things outside of mainspace as well, such as my observations on behavior here on Wikipedia.
When I discovered Wikipedia I was immediately enthusiastic. The possibilities of the project for growth, for visibility, for quality, and for its contributors the possibility of just having fun, for any intellectual person who likes to write and happens to have some extra time, were enormous; indeed it was one of the first places I had ever found on the Internet that didn't feel like another few electronic acres of wasteland. I've been here now for more than five years, and I'm still writing. I like it; it's a pleasure. Some may think I'm nuts for spending so much time writing an encyclopedia, but I tell you it's exciting to see one's articles shoot to the top of Google rankings shortly after their creation. Not only do I find it exciting, but I increasingly find it to be my duty, as someone having a specific expertise, to put accurate, readable, and well-sourced information into that top Google position.
Masters and doctorate are in music composition, with a minor in music theory; undergraduate majors in both music and geology; seven years of teaching undergraduate and graduate students in music theory, music history, orchestration, ear-training, sight-singing, composition, counterpoint, repertoire, and various other subjects; violinist and pianist; former editor of a music research journal; part-time-career as a 21st Century Obscure Composer. Most of my teaching experience is in the classroom, but I have also tutored and taught small groups and individuals.
After leaving academia, for reasons with which I will not bore you, I have increasingly become a musicologist; I have always been fascinated with history, musical trends, the interactions of people and places and ideas; I love figuring things out, and tormenting uninterested friends and relatives with more details about Renaissance Ferrara or Padua or Venice than they can stand. Long ago I learned to recognize that glazed-over look of people who have listened politely for a moment too long, so now I have thankfully discovered Wikipedia. I am here because it gives me an outlet for everything I learned in school, and still love. Here I can share, and if other people can make use of what I write, that makes me happy.
Out of the big university, and being unenamored of a life of poverty and struggle as one of thousands of unemployable people with advanced degrees in a humanities field, I acquired some competence in GIS. I'm now a division manager, in that discipline, at a large firm. It's very different from studying music, but I'll say this for formally studying music: it gives you discipline, and doggedness in tackling tough problems. Those qualities are more valuable in a corporate setting than you might think.
Occasionally you might catch me writing about history, geography, earth sciences, literature, investing, and a few other things, but for the most part I only do this as a break from writing about music.
My credentials and experience are real and verifiable, to those with a need to know, although at this time I prefer to edit anonymously.
